Wednesday, April 7, 2010 (DT 26113)

This puzzle was originally published Wednesday, December 16, 2009 in The Daily Telegraph

Introduction

It is definitely not a very difficult puzzle today. However, I did need to flip open the Tool Chest to help me on 17d, where I managed to get lost on a couple of dead end streets.

Today's Glossary

Some possibly unfamiliar abbreviations, people, places, words and expressions used in today's puzzle

John Carpenter - American film director

Sir Simon Rattle - English conductor

Today's Links

Tilsit's review of today's puzzle may be found at Big Dave's Crossword Blog [DT 26113].

Commentary on Today's Puzzle

9a Carpenter, say - one who makes plenty of cuts (8)

I found the solution quite readily, but needed to do a web search to confirm that, in fact, a DIRECTOR named Carpenter did exist. I was surprised that the only one I could find was an American, and thus continued searching (in vain) for a British director.

By the way, Tilsit refers to this as a double definition (which he criticizes due to the definitions being too similar). As for myself, I took this clue to be more of a cryptic definition than a double definition. But then again, I have learned that not everyone sees things in the same light.

21a Chair one found in class (4)

When I solved the clue, I had presumed that SET meant "class" in a more generic sense than seems to be implied by Tilsit in his review, in which he indicates that set is "the word for a class or form at school". I am aware that the Brits use the term form where we would say grade (i.e., "Mary is in the fourth form" versus "Mary is in the fourth grade" [I'm not sure if there is a one-to-one correspondence between forms and grades, but the concept is at least somewhat similar.]). However, the use of set to refer to a class at school is new to me. Although this shade of meaning is not explicitly evident from the listings in Oxford and Chambers, the usage examples given in Collins do seem to support this meaning. Collins defines set² as "noun 1. a number of objects or people grouped or belonging together, often forming a unit or having certain features or characteristics in common" with one of the examples of its use being "John is in the top set for maths". Moreover, Collins gives another definition for set² as "verb 2. (usually transitive) to divide into sets" with the example being "in this school we set our older pupils for English".

The former example also illustrates another difference between British and North American usage. Whereas the Brits use maths as an abbreviation for mathematics, we would say math.

24a Where you might see pebbles thrown around edge of ocean (5)

In cryptic crosswords, "ocean edges" would be O and N (the letters at either edge of the word "ocean"). Here, you have to pick one of them - and the clue provides no indication of whether you need the leading edge or the trailing edge.

27a Keep getting bottoms of costume wet in bad weather (6)

Another clue in somewhat the same vein as 24a, "bottoms of costume wet" indicates the last letters (bottoms) of the words "costume wet"; i.e., E and T. I must say that I did not immediately warm to this usage. However, the more I think about it, the more I am willing to accept it. After all, one does refer to the last place team in a league as being at the bottom of the standings.

6d Rattle might encourage one to play music (9)

Quite a clever clue - provided one knows who Sir Simon Rattle is. Otherwise, it is rather perplexing.

17d Pick on boy - one's very tiny (8)

Like Franny from the Clueless Club, I wanted to write in plectrum here. However, as I already had the solution for 29a, this obviously was not correct. The next dead end that I ventured down was thinking that "lad" must be a reference to son. However, once I had performed a search for words matching the checking letters, it was easy to pick the correct solution from the resulting list.

Signing off for today - Falcon